1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a dubbing apparatus, and more particularly to a synchronizing circuit for a playback unit and a recording unit in a dubbing apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As well known, cassette tapes have merits of being compact in size and easy to handle compared to conventional so-called open tapes. Due to the compactness and the handiness of the cassette tapes, cassette tape recorders have been popular for a long time in the audio field, and a variety of functions have been recently developed for such equipment. For example, double cassette tape recorders, i.e., combination apparatus of two cassette tape drive mechanisms in a single body (hereafter referred as double cassette tape recorders) are widely used in the portable equipment field. The double cassette tape recorders are convenient for dubbing from a recorded tape on one tape drive mechanism in the playback mode to an unrecorded tape on the other tape drive mechanism in the recording mode.
In addition, CD (Compact Disc) players have recently become popular in the same field. The CD is a digital record disc which carries recorded audio signals in the form of digital data signals which may be optically read therefrom. Similar to the cassette tapes, the CDs also have the merits of being compact in size and easy to handle compared to conventional analog records. As is well known, the CDs have the further merit of a very high fidelity compared to analog record mediums.
Therefore, combination apparatus of the CD player and the cassette tape recorder in a single body (hereafter referred as CD-cassette players) also have been recently developing. The CD-cassette players are convenient for easy playback of cassette tapes and CDs and may be used for dubbing of the CDs to the cassette tapes.
The combination apparatus such as the double cassette tape recorders or the CD-cassette players are now capable of performing the dubbing with a one-touch action of an operator. An example of such a combination apparatus is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,543,618. Such conventional combination apparatus, however, has a problem in that the start of a program outputted from the playback unit often fails to match the timing of the recording unit in completing its transistion to the stable recording condition. Also, the conventional combination apparatus may fail to stop the dubbing at the end of the prerecorded program. Therefore, in the conventional combination apparatus, some length of the leading portion of the prerecorded section from the playback unit may not be recorded by the recording unit, and it is difficult to place a sufficient space between programs recorded on the tapes of the recording unit. Also, it is difficult to edit efficiently programs on the recording tapes.